Rain
by changed currents
Summary: [FusedShipping AU] Even the most important of meetings can happen in the worst of conditions.


**I mentioned Zarc and Ray meeting in the rain in** ** _Perspectives..._** **so here it is!**

 **too much FusedShipping, honestly. I cannot get my mind off ARC-V in fanfiction...**

 **NEW ARC-V SPOILERS: Zarc comes back in 136 (airs on Christmas XD, great present), and apparently destroys all the Lancers at once before commencing a TBD duel with Shun and Kaito.**

 **Yes. Plain yes.**

 **Review...?**

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If there was one thing that Akaba Ray despised, it was rain.

Who _liked_ annoying droplets of water falling from the sky, getting you wet and miserable all the time? Who _liked_ it when you couldn't walk outside without having to carry an umbrella unless you wanted to get soaked? Who _liked_ wiping mud off their boots once they got home?

Ray sighed in annoyance and continued on her way, studiously stepping over puddles and avoiding soaked benches as her boots hit the wet sidewalk. They had been forced to cancel their planned Duel Tournament at school today because nobody wanted the rain ruining their cards or soaking their duel disks. She'd been prepping all week for the tournament and had been utterly disappointed to find it was cancelled.

"It's just water," countless people had told her. "Water. You _drink_ it!"

"The water I drink is cleaner, thank you very much!" she'd snapped.

Ray pushed a loose lock of hair behind her ears and shivered as a few droplets of annoyingly wet water dripped onto her shoulder. Today she just _had_ to be wearing a sweater that got wet so easily and provided no protection from the rain whatsoever. At least she had her boots.

Then, she froze. Very faintly through the pounding rain, she heard the slightest hints of shouting.

Ray's brow crinkled. Who would be out of their mind enough to stay out in the _freezing rain,_ of all places, to yell? Quickly, she hurried towards the noise, the glass wall of the small bus stop rising out of the sheets of rain as she reached it.

Sitting on the wooden bench inside and rifling through his card, was a boy no older than thirteen (her own age!) He wore the male uniform of her academy that had once upon a time been brand-new, and had a bleeding cut on his cheeks. Red blood dripped down his face, but he ignored the drops.

At his feet was a cracked and broken duel disk, along with a schoolbag whose contents were scattered and slowly soaking through with rain. The boy paid them no attention, however, and continued a severe inspection on his cards.

Ray muttered a curse not fit for a lady under her breath. The older kids, who loved to pick on the younger ones, must've gotten to him. He was definitely a new kid, and by the looks of it, in her year.

She slowly walked into the bus station, the sound of her feet startling the boy to look up at her. His grey bangs were streaked with lime green, and he had golden-yellow eyes that were abnormally bright in the dim lighting of the bus stop.

"Are you going to pick on me too?" The boy's voice held a defeated tone, and he barely paid attention to how many accents he was missing in the Japanese words.

Ray drew in a breath, and released it. "No."

To the boy's surprise, she knelt down and began picking up his wet books and papers, slowly placing then back in his black cloth schoolbag. It was labeled with the name of their school in kanji, and the strap was only slightly damp.

"What are you doing?" His voice held no surprise, evidently showing his skill at hiding his emotions.

Ray ignored his question and placed the packed schoolbag next to the wooden bench, before sitting down on it. "My name's Akaba Ray, what's your's?"

"Zarc. No family name, just Zarc," the boy replied, averting his attention back to his cards. Ray's eyes were captivated by the glossy sheen that screamed _brand-new,_ but the cards were definitely part of a very-used deck. This boy cared a _lot_.

"Well, Zarc, what deck do you run?" she asked, and the boy's head swiveled back, eyes meeting hers.

"You play?"

Ray laughed. "Everyone in this city plays, Zarc. Even some of the adults do."

Zarc lowered his head, a light dusting of pink spreading across his cheeks. "Oh. It's just...where I came from, only the boys and men knew how to duel. Only they were allowed to learn how in the first place. The women and girls were just expected to sit there and look pretty."

Ray narrowed her eyes. "That's stupid!"

"I know," Zarc said, surprising Ray. Most boys in the school would've applauded that statement, and Ray was happy to find a boy that wasn't sexist about the game of Duel Monsters, for once. "I knew another girl there who said the same thing you did. Funny enough, most women in my old city enjoyed having the men do the fighting."

"But dueling is fun!" Ray was shocked.

Zarc let out a small laugh, the corner of his lips turning up. "To answer your earlier question, I run a combination of spellcaster- and dragon-types."

"That's cool!" Ray enthused, before checking the time on her watch. Her face fell slightly as she watched the needle tick off another minute after three, her lateness obvious. "I'm so sorry, I've got to go!"

To her surprise, Zarc stood with her, picking up his bag and stuffing the broken disk into it carelessly. He had a small smile on his face. "It's rude to let a lady walk by herself through the rain, so I'll walk with you. Where to?"

Ray blushed at his words, still slightly surprised that a boy she'd just met was offering her companionship on her lonely walk home through freezing sheets of rain. "My house is about five blocks away, and thank you!"

Zarc shared a smile with her, before holding out her umbrella that she hadn't even noticed he'd picked up. "Shall we?"

Ray took the umbrella and exploded it into the shield against the droplets she hated to much. "We shall."

That night at dinner, when her father had asked her who the boy she'd walked home with was over bowls of miso soup, Ray replied with a single statement, watching the mist of miso form in her soup with a small smile.

"He's a friend."

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 **Short again...oh well.**

 **Review...?**


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